Barack Obama aide resigns over claim that 9/11 was a pretext for war
Van Jones, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, has resigned after it emerged that he had signed a petition stating that the Bush administration may have allowed the September 11 attacks to happen as a pretext to go to war.
By Toby Harnden ,for www.telegraph.co.uk

Van Jons resigned from his position as an environmental advisor Photo: GETTY IMAGES
The ousting of Van Jones, a Left-wing activist appointed by Mr Obama as his “special adviser for green jobs”, is a victory for Republicans and a sign of growing weakness within the White House.

It was a major scalp for the Fox News host Glenn Beck, who brought Mr Jones’s past to prominence and for weeks has been citing his presence in the Obama administration as evidence that the president is guided by a cadre of radical lieutenants.

Mr Jones was reported to have signed a petition saying that Mr Bush “may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war”.
In an angry statement issued on Sunday, Mr Jones spoke of a “vicious smear campaign against me” and blamed Republicans for “using lies and distortions to distract and divide”.